Man, the more I watch this drama, the more impressed I am with Ray Chang's acting. The way he handles the dual environments with the ghost and reality is just really amazing coming from a Taiwanese idol actor. I mean, he's not technically an "idol actor" since he has won a Golden Horse, but his acting is just so natural, genuine, and altogether charismatic, it's just really refreshing to watch a Taiwanese actor show this sort of performance, when typically most idol actors in Taiwan tend to overact in these TV dramas.
Shuhai deserves a best friend that's actually human and isn't a manipulative two-sided ghost all the damn time. Mystic Dragon needs to step his game up and solve the mystery already!
The bromance is strong in this one. Also, FYI, the TV version of this drama only has 13 episodes, whereas the Line TV version aired the full 35 episodes.
I'm so confused, what's the difference between the purple Abbotts and the regular Abbotts? I must have missed this detail... Glad to see Sunny back alive though. They could have fleshed out Sunny's memory/flashback a bit more, imho. It felt a little rushed, especially when there were so many other side stories to tell (e.g. Jade's capture).
EDIT: OK, found out the difference. Purple are apprentices, while orange ones are trained, which makes sense, since cutting the purple ones would make them go out of control and attack.
The two leads have great chemistry with each other! Similar to Ariel Lin and Bolin Chen in the original Taiwanese drama. My only complaint though is that I wish they styled Jin Shiarsu's when he's acting as an adult just so he would look a bit more mature. His high school appearance and his adult appearance are too similar.
Ishida Ren needs more scenes where he's wearing eye glasses. He looks so much better with them on!
The amount of time it took for Yo to teleport from Tokyo, Japan to Suzhou, China is worthy to be in the last two seasons of Game of Thrones.
The romance between Mary-Ann's dad and Dawn's mom is soooo cute, omg. But if the writers for this entire series don't stay on for the second season or the seasons after, I'm gonna throw my own damn tantrum.
Keisha Castle-Hughes is amazing as one of the Sand Snakes. I can't wait to see her in action!
Yara Greyjoy's plan to ally with Dany Targaryen was really predictable. How did she hear about the Queen of Dragons anyway? I don't remember anyone telling her that Dany was in Meereen.
Also, I wonder who Sansa wrote to.
Tilda's fight at the end was kind of weird. It was unexpected in a way that it didn't feel characteristic of her to rebel against the Widow. Yes, she's been doubting the Widow's actions for the entire season, but the lines she delivered before the big fight don't really depict her true frustrations or emotions towards the Widow. Again, the show really needs better scriptwriters. Ally Ioannides, Tilda's actress, finally shows off her acting chops though, so at least we get that.
OK, the relationships in this show are all wrong. They should go like this: Nanase x Natsume, Nao x Issei, Uehara x Saeko, and of course, Micchan x Marina. Daisuke can just die alone lol because he literally has zero facial expressions except for "pleasantly surprised" and "surprised".
This is a great adaptation of Taiwan's In Time with You. The two leads - Rika Adachi and Jin Shirasu - have great chemistry together, and they're also talented in acting some of the more nuanced scenes between the two best friend characters, but this Japanese series lacks the magic that Taiwanese director Yu Ningchu brought to the original Taiwanese series that made the show a truly unforgettable small-screen experience.
It's been a while since I've seen the original Taiwanese series, but from what I can recall in comparison, this adaptation drags out the ex-boyfriend subplot far longer than the original show. He takes up 8 episodes of the full 16 episode series, whereas in the Taiwanese version, he is a less prominent character and the focus is shifted to Li Daren instead. By stretching out this subplot, I think it took away some of the sentiment the audience feels for the best friend relationship that's supposed to be in the spotlight instead.
I'm a bit disappointed that this show didn't meet up to my expectations as a ~perfect~ drama adaptation of In Time with You, but I also realize that the original Taiwanese version had just set my expectations far too high. Despite all of this, I would still recommend this Japanese adaptation to anyone who has seen the Taiwanese drama and wants "the feels" again. Jin Shirasu plays the "Li Daren" role to a tee.
There are some pacing issues in the beginning and middle of this show, but Maggie Gyllenhaal puts in such a stunning performance, you'll be willing to ignore it. Lubna Azabal is also incredible in this. Good spy thriller for those interested in learning about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The first season is better than the second season by miles. And I think it's because there was a severe lack of adults (AKA a reasonable and responsible human being) in the second season that could keep things humble. Instead, the whole second season is just one hyper-melodramatic pool party with no real consequence to the crisis at the summer house this summer.
The announcement also revealed that season 3 was officially greenlit ahead of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and production will not begin until “after labor negotiations with those unions have been resolved.”
Per above, I hope this means the writers will actually take their time thinking through a more realistic and less melodramatic storyline for all the characters. I'd like to see Shayla (Minnie Mills) make a reappearance too; she was fantastic in season one.
Sunny is back! And by "back", I mean that he's back in the Badlands and as the proper protagonist again! YAY. The whole civil war thing was getting boring. Also, I would not mind an alliance between Sunny and The Widow. They would make a good team!
This is a trashy show. You don't start episode 1 of a TV show on The CW network expecting something from HBO or AMC. I'm not sure what all these negative reviewers were expecting when they started this show. If you take this show seriously, then you're watching it wrong. If you're watching it for fun, just to tap out at the end of the day, maybe to shut your brain off so you can watch an overdramatic storyline that will have no effect on your being, then do give this a try. The overall storyline is ridiculous and completely unbelievable, but this is a teen soap drama. For a teen soap drama, I think it's very well-produced.
Script & Story: 6/10 – Like I said, the storyline is ridiculous, but the story does get better.
Acting: 8/10 – The four main actors are still fairly early in their careers, and you can tell which ones are less experienced, but they do get better in the second half of the first season, when they become more familiar with their own characters. Plus, the acting from the parent figures (e.g. Madchen Amick, Skeet Ulrich) helps provide more emotional realism to make certain scenes more convincing.
Set Production & Costume: 8/10 – I love how they designed the "small town feel" to their filming locations. The natural wilderness of Vancouver, British Columbia helps a lot in some of their scenes.
Characters: 9/10 – I'm not crazy for the lack of development for Archie, but they did really well in developing both Betty and Jughead. The introduction of Veronica's father in the second season will definitely help Veronica's character development, and I'm very confident Archie's character will undergo some changes in the second season too.
Cinematography: 10/10 – Some of the shots in this show are truly beautiful, especially for a teen soap drama.
I support Archie/Betty, so I loved the final sequence, but damn, my favourite scene of this episode has got to be Alice confronting F.P. at Pop's. My god, the sexual tension between those two is hot! I mean, was that F.P. suggesting Alice to leave Hal, her husband?! There's history between those two, and I can't wait until it's finally revealed.
Jonathan Bailey's Anthony Bridgerton gets better and better each episode. I can't wait for season two. He's utterly ferocious.
Didn't like the fact that they revealed Whistledon ahead of time either. Unless that was a throwaway to lure us audience members to speculate in a completely direction...
In terms of chemistry between Daphne and Simon, I feel like the actress gives a lot to it, but the actor gives too little. The episodes are getting better though, after the awkwardly paced first two episodes.
Allison and Donnie are my favourite TV couple.
"Donnie, my sister has a robot maggot in her face. You tell me what a solid plan is." "Exactly. Now go rent a jackhammer."
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not gonna let it slide."
Pivotal episode, where Hongpei finally discovers the truth of what transpired during the six years when he was dead. So sad.
Poor Pierre. He deserves all the happiness in the world. I mean, I'm super happy for Prince Andrei too, but gosh, poor Pierre :( I hope this love triangle doesn't end up being this crazy intense murderous thing because I really like the other two characters too.
Dylan Minnette (Clay), Brandon Flynn (Justin), and Alisha Boe (Jessica) are easily the best actors among the "teen" cast members.
Damn, they've really dialed up the love triangle in this episode. Those angsty looks from Ren...
I can't believe Maki is back in the picture again though. Ugh. When will she leave the main story line?! Also -- I've said this previously -- the actor for Ren is infinitely better looking with glasses on.
100% here for Tony Yang wearing a dress and trying to climb over a steel gate. Absolutely adorable.
The writing and the directing are so much better in this episode. Even the acting is better.
Predictable resurrection, but I appreciate it nevertheless. I'm bummed out about Dorne (episode 1), and I wish Margaery can return to King's Landing soon - the priest guy is an ass - but I'm looking forward to what's gonna happen with Sansa Stark this season. She finally has an exciting story line! Yay!
Whoa, I admit, I did not expect that ending at all. I always thought it would be Uehara proposing to break up rather than the other way around. Kudos to Nao; she's way smarter than she looks. She's finally starting to find her own two feet. Hope she pairs up with Natsume later in the future, he's a good influence on her.
Really happy for Tony and Elaine! They're probably the most deserving of the four couples to win, because of how much friendly teamwork they put in into their relationship. Darron and Alex come a close second simply because of how much they've grown as father-and-son in the 50 days. All in all, I think all four couples are kind of deserving of their places. I'm also really glad that Natalie and Shameema helped Josh and Felix out too; that was a really kind moment.
Great season. If they have a second season, I hope they extend it to eight episodes; six episodes is a bit cramped in terms of content!
